Daily Recap — May 15

The week keeps rolling along, never allowing any rest for the #Woke.

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TWO STEPS FORWARD, ONE STEP BACK

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The little North Korean fruit loop is at it again.

Apparently weary from all the headlines regarding his capitulation to PDT, Rocket Man saw fit to resort to his old muscle-flexing ways, only rather than threatening to turn Washington and Seoul into “seas of fire,” he’s huffing, puffing and threatening not to play with us anymore.

Lil Kim has officially cancelled high-level talks with South Korea scheduled for today and is also threatening to pull out of the big summit with PDT because of ongoing military exercises between the US and South Korea.

North Korea’s slightly less communistic version of CNN, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), called the US/SK “Max Thunder” air combat drills a “provocation” that went against the trend of warming North-South ties. Max Thunder is an exercise involving B-52’s, stealth bombers and F-16 fighters, essentially just practice for creating South Korea’s giant new northern parking lot.

“This exercise, targeting us, which is being carried out across South Korea, is a flagrant challenge to the Panmunjom Declaration and an intentional military provocation running counter to the positive political development on the Korean Peninsula,” a KCNA spokesman is quoted as saying.

“The United States will also have to undertake careful deliberations about the fate of the planned North Korea-US summit in light of this provocative military ruckus jointly conducted with the South Korean authorities.”

And there it is. What this thing is all about — testing how much Trump will put up with to get his summit. Kim is getting too big for his britches.

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The State Department says it has no earthly clue what this little fat bastard is talking about, noting that it has not received any information about the threats to cancel and, as far as they know, the planning for the summit is continuing.

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“Kim Jong-un had said previously that he understands the need and the utility of the United States and the Republic of Korea continuing in its joint exercises,” State Department spokeswoman and blond angel like I imagine floating around in Heaven Heather Nauert said shortly after the North Korean announcement.

“We will continue to go ahead and plan the meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.”

A flat-footed response at best.

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The North and South were set to hold a meeting focusing on plans to implement a declaration that emerged from the April 27 summit, including promises to formally end the Korean War and pursue “complete denuclearization.”

This was supposed to kick off the process. Not a promising development, though not completely surprising.

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THESE DRILLS WERE NOT A SURPRISE

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South Korea’s National Security Office head Won-Ton Soy said in early March, after meeting Rocket Man, that the North Korean regime understood that “routine” joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. would continue in spite of a warming of ties.

This was widely considered to be a major North Korea concession, though Pyongyang never publicly withdrew its long-standing demand for an end to joint US-South Korea military drills.

And now you know why. It was in their back pocket for negotiation.

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SO JUST TELL ME WHAT THE HELL’S BASICALLY GOING ON HERE:

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Lil Kim is not stupid. He understands leverage, just as PDT does. He also understands politics. He knows that continued good headlines are helpful to the Trump presidency, and conversely, bad headlines can help to sink it.

Any cancellation of the summit, the first ever meeting between US and North Korean leaders, would be a major blow to the Trump foreign policy record. What would have been considered a Nobel-worthy historical achievement could become an embarrassment overnight.

Essentially, Kim is using that perceived desire on Trump’s part to keep this summit on track in order to shake out some concessions. Make no mistake about it, Trump is being tested.

Some may think it’s perfectly reasonable for Lil Kim to demand an end to military drills meant to intimidate him. The problem is, these drills have been ongoing for years. North Korea always threatens seas of fire, the drills go on, and the cycle continues.

But more importantly, Kim knew that these drills were planned and agreed to the summit in spite of them. He agreed that the drills would go on as usual and it would not be a reason to preclude the summit.

He lied.

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BIG PICTURE:

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This is my personal opinion on the matter.

Trump cannot afford to blink. As noted above, Kim is testing him. He believes Trump may bow to his demands in order to keep the summit on track, despite not having made these demands when it counted.

If PDT cancels military drills as a means to keep the summit planned as normal, it will be seen as a move of weakness and the entire dynamic of the NK situation will change. It will be perceived as such because it will be exactly that, which is why I don’t foresee it happening.

One may call Trump a variation of names, but weakling is not among them, nor is coward. I’d rate the chance of that sort of capitulation as very low to non-existent. Or as PDT put it during a GOP retreat press conference several months ago: “Kim knows I’m not playing games. Not even a little bit. Not even one percent.”

The bottom line is, just as with Guam, PDT will have to call Kim’s bluff. If he wants to cancel the summit because of military drills he knew full well about and agreed to allow just a month ago, so be it. The pressure will just have to stay on and he’ll have to put all his hope into Trump not killing him before he reaches nuclear ICBM capacity.

If I had to bet, I’d say he doesn’t pick that door. I base that not on gut reaction (though I do have it) but rather their previous standoffs. PDT gave us the luxury of a reference point for this sort of thing last year when he essentially dared Kim to go ahead with a planned launch toward Guam.

Rocket Man™ issued his standard Rocket Threats™ but when it counted, backed right on down and cancelled the launch. I believe we’re in for a similar situation here. Kim may jack his jaws, but does he have the Corleones to actually pull out of the summit and leave his fate to The Donald’s bigger, better, fully functional button?

It’s another game of chicken, and Rocket Man is poised to peter out once more.

And not just because of the good ole reliable credible threat of force, upon which the delicate world stage of diplomacy teeters. Brand spankin’ new Sec of State Mike Pompeo publicly laid out the choice before the Kim regime on Sunday.

The bottom line of US foreign policy toward North Korea right now is to give them a literal choice between prosperity and death. If Kim can be convinced that nuclear ICBM development = death, we’re in business. It really is that simple.

But the added incentive to go the other direction makes the choice that much harder, especially with the inevitable internal pressure from the North Korean ruling class to get a taste of that gravy train. North Koreans don’t speak out against Kim publicly, but boy do they scheme in the shadows, #ThatICanTellYou.

There you have it, the entire North Korean debacle. Rocket Man will have to decide what door he chooses. Our job in the meantime is to ensure him we mean business.

Which means this stunt must be answered with strength and resolve.

Keep our president in your prayers.

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IMMIGRATION TALK ON THE HILL

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The GOP, probably at the behest of PDT, remembered again that many of them were elected to fix immigration and decided to huddle up accordingly to pretend they’re going to do something.

Paul Rino and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with PDT at the White House on Tuesday to “discuss a path forward on immigration” in an effort to get a comprehensive plan in place.

Thanks to many of you, GOP leaders in the House have been facing pressure from rank-and-file members to bring immigration legislation to the floor. Yes, I’m serious. Congressmen have been nagging the leadership to get immigration legislation to the floor because they, in turn, are getting pressure from their constituents.

This is what democracy is supposed to look like. Good job, Trumpers.

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Eighteen Republicans have signed on to a discharge petition to force a series of votes on several immigration bills. If the petition wins a majority of House members as signatories, it would force a vote on the floor.

If all Dims back the petition, the sponsors would only need 25 Republicans to do so, a number that appears to be within their grasp despite opposition from GOP leaders, who say the petition gives power to the minority.

GOP leaders, specifically the aforementioned Speaker-wannabe McCarthy, have informally whipped members against backing the discharge petition. These jackwads are absolutely allergic to anything serious getting done on immigration. McCarthy is using a process complaint to justify his opposition, saying that the discharge process is a bad way to go.

“Well, we’re still talking after we talked to the president on which way to go,” McCarthy said. “I still have a firm belief discharge is the worst way to legislate.”

Pardon me if I don’t shed any tears about politicians being forced to stand up and vote on something. You know what’s the worst way to legislate? NOT LEGISLATING AT ALL AND RELINQUISHING OUR NATIONAL SOVERIEGNTY IN THE PROCESS. I think the distinguished members of the House will survive a forced vote.

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House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who recently survived a rifle attack by a coochie capper who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, is continuing discussions with members on “an acceptable path forward on immigration,” which apparently doesn’t include a discharge petition.

In the event that GOP lawmakers are forced to endure the horror of being forced to vote on an issue critical to our national survival, we should probably cover what they actually support.

It’s actually not that bad, though it could be much better. GOP leaders are backing a conservative immigration measure (with the exception of DACA concessions) spearheaded by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (VA) and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX). Ready for the good news now? It doesn’t have anywhere near enough support to pass the House, much less the Senate.

Let there be no doubt: border hawks are a fringe minority in our government. We’re going to catch hell securing our border.

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So what did they really talk to PDT about? We likely won’t get all the real answers to that, which is a good thing. Info is fairly scant.

McCarthy said there was an “emphasis on a need for stronger border protections” during the White House discussion, which is about as generic as it gets. It’s DC speak for “I’m not about to tell you what was discussed.”

Or it could be read as a rather obvious way of saying, “Trump jumped our asses about #TheWall.”

It would certainly go along with the theme of the day. PDT spoke outside the Capitol building today and called on lawmakers to fund #TheWall, pass new measures cracking down on sanctuary cities and end catch-and-release laws.

“We don’t want it anymore. We’ve had it. Enough is enough,” Trump said at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service.

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Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Commiefornia) was a bit more illuminating in his remarks, throwing out a little more detail crumbs for the starving journos. Denham is leading the discharge petition effort and says that members have been in talks with leadership about working out a deal that could potentially stave off their push to force an immigration vote.

“We are having conversations about bringing a bill to the floor,” he said. “It is going to have to be a bill that not only has a date certain that it will be on the floor, but one that can get bipartisan support and one that the president would sign.”

But Denham emphasized that there is no obvious solution currently in sight, so they are still pushing ahead with the discharge petition.

“I have not seen what a final agreement would look like – or even close,” Denham said. “So we’re having good discussions, but right now our focus is making sure we have 218 people to sign.”

Denham claimed that those backing the effort have secured enough supporters on the Republican side for the petition, but not all of them have publicly signed on yet – a strategic move almost certainly designed to buy time to work out a deal with leadership and the White House.

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GOOD NEWS: Congressmen are actually raising hell about immigration and pushing to force a vote on the House floor.

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BAD NEWS: No one has a clue what type of bill could be passed or when, if ever. There’s a lot of energy but no one has a clue what to do with it.

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I do know this much. Trump put out the clarion call that this September, #TheWall goes up or #TheGubmint goes down.

They’d better figure something out.

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JUST SAY IT MR. NUNES: SET-UP

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That’s what it was. The whole #PutinGate saga was a set-up. The Trump Tower meeting with the Russian lawyer the Obama admin let in the country on a special visa waiver, the dossier used for the FISA application, all of it. It was all a set-up to bring down the Trump presidency. Or as former FBI counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok would call it: an insurance policy.

To Devin Nunes’ credit, though, he is getting close to saying those two words. And without his hard work, persistence and courage, we likely wouldn’t know what we do now.

And now, he’s getting close. The picture is becoming clearer and clearer and there’s no turning back.

Nunes said today that he wants to find out how the Department of Justice decided a special counsel was necessary to investigate the Trump campaign.

“What we’re trying to do is get the documents to figure out … what methods were used to open this counterintelligence investigation,” Nunes said on Fox News.

Though we already found out this weekend, Nunes said that testimony from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson indicated there was a source within the Trump campaign leaking information for the pee-pee dossier, which is a bit odd since the information is all garbage. You know what that’s called? Getting someone in place and demanding that they get something.

Remember, this was always an investigation in search of a crime, not a crime being investigated.

He added that the whole situation looks bad for the Justice Department and could even suggest they were setting Mr. Trump up.

“They never should have opened a counterintelligence investigation into a political party,” Nunes summarized in the understatement of the year.

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BIG PICTURE:

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It’s like this. Nunes knows what happened. He can see the big picture now, he only needs the actual picture to be filled in so everyone else can get his view.

Hence why we’ve seen all the stonewalling by the DOJ. They know he’s onto it too. Think about this, people, do we really expect them to be forthcoming with these documents? I’m frankly surprised they haven’t pulled even crazier stunts.

And now, yet another date to examine DOJ documents has been cancelled and moved back by Fraud Rosenstein and the crew.

It’s a matter of Nunes finally filling in the picture with documentary evidence and the DOJ doing all they can to stop that from happening.

Here is the aerial view of what happened. The FBI/DOJ used a fake dossier to get a FISA warrant. They spied on Manafort, Page and probably other people in the Trump orbit yet to be discovered.

Members of the Barry administration, specifically Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and (likely) Ben Rhodes along with former intel heads John Brennan and James Clapper all had their ears to the ground taking in any and all “evidence” yielded from this scandalous investigation.

Samantha Power alone averaged one “unmasking” (exposing of American names in electronic surveillance reports) per working day. She literally checked every single day at work to see what was happening within the Trump campaign.

These are sick people.

Sooner or later, the truth will win out. Don’t doubt it for one second. Many people became enemies of Donald J. Trump throughout this ordeal, and that’s not a good list to be on. We’re using the government to hold itself accountable, which is damn near impossible, but there have been many impossible tasks completed over the past year.

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Sit tight.

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There it is, homeskillet. You know the drill: questions, comments, concerns, memes, insults, compliments, stickers, jokes, emojis and, if we have time, complaints.

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